


A New Chapter

by Mochas N Mayhem (KoohiiCafe)



Series: Bound in Story [11]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-13 22:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4540002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoohiiCafe/pseuds/Mochas%20N%20Mayhem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the year 2270. She was two hundred and sixty-seven years in the future. She was in another dimension, where demons and magic didn't exist. All that she could handle. What she couldn't handle was that this entire thing had been a set up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Chapter

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** A New Chapter  
>  **Author:** Koohii Cafe  
>  **Rating:** General Audiences  
>  **Crossover:** BtVS/Star Trek: The Original Series  
>  **Disclaimer:** Since I am a poor chickadee with no wealth to speak of, I think it's safe to say that neither BtVS nor Star Trek: The Original Series are mine. ^^;  
>  **Written for:** [TtH](http://www.tthfanfic.org/) [August Fic A Day Challenge](http://forum.tthfanfic.org/index.php?topic=9537.0)  
>  **Summary:** _It was the year 2270. She was two hundred and sixty-seven years in the future. She was in another dimension, where demons and magic didn't exist. All that she could handle. What she couldn't handle was that this entire thing had been a set up._  
>  **Author's notes:** There have been minute changes made to the first couple paragraphs of 'Bound in Story,' which precedes this story, to keep it canon compliant with TOS. Check it out, if you'd like, it's nothing too big.

It was the year 2270. She was two hundred and sixty-seven years in the future. She was in another dimension, where demons and magic didn't exist. She had been rescued from another dimension where she'd spent god only _knew_ how long fighting countless demons, because time hadn't really been a thing there. Maybe she'd even spent two hundred and sixty-seven years there, she didn't know. All of that she could handle. What she _couldn't_ handle- or rather, didn't _want_ to handle- was that this entire thing had been a set up. Because...

Jim was- Jim was Jim. He was chivalrous, and sweet, and friendly and funny, and he was handsome, and charismatic, and he hadn't packed her away to this dimension's version of the nut house when she'd told him about her world, where she'd come from, what things were like. He was- or had been- the captain of a _starship_ , although he was on some kind of leave now, she knew, and he would get tense whenever the subject of his next assignment came up, and the stories he'd told her about the mission he and his ship had just finished were just- amazing. The way _he_ got, when he talked about his ship, about his mission, about everything they'd done- he practically _glowed_ during those times, and his grins then...

His mother, Winona, who they were staying with, was also sweet, motherly in a way that reminded her almost painfully of her own mother. She'd taken easily to the fact that her son had brought home a universal refugee, and had done a lot to make her feel at home, and to help acclimate her to this universe, and this time. Peter, Jim's nephew, was Dawn's age, and tried too to be as helpful as he could, often showing her little things here or there that the other two had missed, or hadn't thought about. The wonder of youth, she'd thought to herself a few times, as if she wasn't just a few years older than him herself, because- god, she _felt_ so much older.

Then there was 'Bones,' as Jim called him, or 'Just call me Leonard,' as the older man had insisted himself. An old friend, she could tell, and part of Jim's crew, although he was on leave himself, and he was getting ready to head off planet for some trip that made him smile whenever it came up. He'd delayed his trip for just a little while, intent on seeing to her health, since he'd been the doctor Jim had called for her when she'd first come here with him. He was the perfect gentleman- if a little scary, she'd found out first hand, if you tried to disobey his medical orders- and entirely friendly, sweet in his distinctly southern way. The way he and Jim interacted spoke volumes about their relationship- and sometimes reminded her painfully of the Scoobies, and how they'd been once.

Between the four of them, her gracious hosts and her new doctor, she'd started to get comfortable here. Started to adjust, and settle. And then, one day, Jim had been musing about the chest that had started it all, had made some offhand comment about the man who'd sold it to the antique shop.

And his description had sent a jolt straight through her. Enough that she'd excused herself abruptly, had come out here to the barn, with only the horses for witness, and shouted, angrily;

" _Whistler_!"

"You rang?" Behind her, and she turned with inhuman speed, hands balled into fists at her side, and it was by sheer willpower alone that she didn't shove him up against the barn wall as she had in Giles' house all those years ago. He raised both hands anyway, in a gesture of peace, surrender of some kind, his eyes wide. "Hey, hey, I come in peace, slayer."

" _Peace_? Is that what you call it when you strand me in another dimension, two hundred years in the future, with no hope of ever getting back to my friends and family again?" Her voice was ice over iron, her face angry, her eyes blazing, and he arched an eyebrow at her in return, staying a respectable distance away.

"You mean the friends and family who abandoned you right before the end? I mean-"

" _Don't_ you dare." She stepped forward, and he stepped back quickly, hastily speaking,

"Alright, alright, sorry. Didn't mean any offense. Consider the subject dropped."

"Then tell me what the hell is going on, and tell me _now_. Why am I _here_? Is there some- apocalypse here? Some new threat that needs a slayer, huh? Something that _required_ you to take me away from the people I care about?"

"Would you rather still be in that desert hell dimension?" His eyebrows went up again, and then he continued, not giving her a chance to answer. "Remember how, last time we met, I told you things weren't supposed to go down the way they did? This is another one of those cases. You pulled the unexpected, Buffy. Threw a wrench in things. Which isn't a bad thing- at least I don't think- but the guys upstairs? Makes it kinda hard for them."

"And I care _why_?"

"Because that spell you had your witch do? The mojo with unlocking all the slayers? If you thought things were bad with the First before, with just you shifting the balance? You _plus_ all those new slayers was gonna be bad news. It would've given the First more strength than you can even imagine. So when you got yourself trapped in the hellmouth, and ended up in that other dimension, they took it and ran with it."

He was watching her, a little warily, as he spoke. But something about his words, something had hit her just so, and her anger was deflating. Maybe it was his tone, maybe it was the way he was looking at her, or just the flat out point he was making to her. Or maybe some combination of the three. Her head dipped, her eyes sliding closed for a second, because- it made sense, what he was saying.

It was Willow's spell that brought her back to life that gave the First the ability to break through the way it had. She knew that. She knew that her own life had shifted the balance so far into 'Good,' that 'Evil' had been able to take a step forward. But she hadn't thought about what effect the awakening of so many new slayers would have. Not that she would change what she'd done, not for anything, but- it made sense. And if the choice was between changing that, taking away what she and Willow have given to all of those girls- and her own life? It was an easy decision.

Her voice wasn't angry this time, when she asked; "Why here?"

"Because things are different, in this dimension." The balance demon's voice was- quiet? Sympathetic? She looked up again, abruptly, but he was shrugging then, his voice easy and casual as he continued. "No demons, no magic, no strict balance of Good and Evil. You can exist here without throwing things outta whack. And Jimmy-boy here, who found you? He's had it rough, and he's got a lotta tough times ahead of him still. Figured the two of you might balance things out a bit."

"' _Balance_ ,'" she echoed back, and there might have been a laugh there.

"Hey, I'm a balance demon. What'd'ya expect?" He grinned at her, winked, and added; "Anyway, I can't really stay. Got things to take care of, errands to run, things to balance. You'll be alright here, slayer. Just trust me on that."

Then, within the blink of an eye, he was gone, and she was left alone. Alone- just as she heard a distant call from outside the barn, in the direction of the house; Jim, calling to see where she'd gone, saying something about dinner being ready. Almost simultaneously, her stomach decided to remind her that it really was about that time, rumbling noisily, and- Winona was cooking tonight, wasn't she? Winona's cooking was _always_ something she looked forward to, and-

And... this was becoming home, she realized. A little bit at a time. It wasn't her time, or her dimension, and her friends and family were long gone, but- she had new friends here already. People who cared about her, and wanted to help her, and who she was starting to care about too. That was enough, wasn't it?

It was, she decided firmly, and called back to Jim easily, moving towards the barn doors to head inside.


End file.
